How Children Learn!

     When thinking about how children learn, I immediatly think about how different and unique each child is. Because each child is unique and different, they all learn in different ways. Some children are auditory learners while others are visual learners. Some students like to do things with their hands and are considered kinesthetic learners.Sometimes as a teacher it is hard to teach to every student in their preffered learning style but it is very important to make an effort to do this to help students succeed. There are many different issues that can be thought about when thinking about how children learn. Some of these issues are interest, motivation, activity, exploration, and collaboration.

   As a future social studies teacher, it is important that I make sure the materials I am teaching the students are interesting to them. This might mean letting students have a little more choice and freedom about a topic. If students are younger, you can give them a list of topics they can choose from so that they still have some kind of choice about what they are learning. It is important to get the parents involved so that they know what their child is doing and can also help them get information. The students will draw a picture illustrating something they learned or enjoyed about their topic and then talk to the class about their findings. This way individual learning is left to the student and they are not just reading straight from a textbook and answering questions. It is also important that students stay motivated and as a teacher I need to make sure that students stay aroused and their attention is captured. I am going to make sure I have an interesting beginning to a lesson such as, state an interesting social studies fact to grab their attention. I can also use extrinsic motivators to help students become even more motivated. Another issue that is important is the activity. It is important that I make sure the instructions to my activities are very clear and concise for easy comprehension from the students. I need to be a facilitator of knowledge who moves around the room giving assistance if it is needed, ask questions to make sure students comprehend, maintain order,and reassure students. It is important that I foster students learning and not just tell them the answers in the activity.One more issue is exploration. As a social studies teacher it is important for me to let my students explore the community, state, and nation. By letting students explore, I am making the subject more real and exciting to them. I can take students to museums where they can actually see the history of the state or world.  It is important that I let my students figure out what they believe and feel about certain issues as a part of exploration. The final issue that influences childrens learning is collaboration. This is a very important issue because social/moral growth depends on the ability to engage with other students, share decisions, be a part of something, and give them more strength then simply doing things on their own. Collaboration and team building provides students with a real life experience of a democratic community.

   All of these issues influence my Social Studies teaching. It is important that I make sure all of these issues are developed in a way to give my students the best possible learning experience. I believe by taking part in these issues, students will have a very good social studies knowledge that will come from many things instead of just textbooks.